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upon whose assistance he so much depended for the accomplishment of his plans, when he spoke to him on this subject, started difficulties which he was far from foreseeing. To his urgent entreaties to have her conveyed to one of his estates he peremptorily refused, or to be the means of putting Alice under his protection. He did not contend with his Highness on the necessity of shielding her from the seducing arts of the Count de Nevers; yet he would not assist him in counteracting them, but under the express condition, that Alice should be immediately conducted to the Abbey of Fontevraux, and that only if the abbess of that convent consented, to conceal her in that sacred asylum until they could, without endangering the state, restore her to liberty, and the King of Navarre at last consented to this plan, and in a few hours after he set out to Fontevraux, to prevail on the abbess, from political motives, to take charge of Alice. But his visit to the abbess proved unpropitious to his hopes, for the abbess refused to receive Alice into the convent. Chagrined at the failure of his design, the King of Navarre returned to Paris, and informed Vaudois of the result of his journey to Fontevraux. Vaudois then said, since she refused to receive Alice, he could do no more. So saying, Vaudois hastily bade the King of Navarre adieu, and hurried away. The King of Navarre, in the height of his fury, cursed Vaudois for a trembling slave; for, had he only consented to his proposals, the lovely Alice would have been in his power. The thoughts of his having been defeated in this scheme almost drove him to madness.
The day, on which the Count de Nevers was to pass under the arch-way of the Palace des Tournelles, at last arrived. Accompanied by the Seur de Joinville, he proceeded to the place of rendez-vous,
